and the president is off at least negotiating behind the scenes on the fiscal cliff. >> i think you called it, tamron. look, the rhetoric is scaled back dramatically in the last few days. they're talking and seriously evidenced by the fact we're not learning that much. they're keeping it pretty close to the vest. i think the speaker is under enormous pressure of his own caucus to get something, to extract something in return for these tax hikes. and that's why he's talking about spending cuts. but i think that they're moving along on this process is my interpretation of it. >> as we understand it, both sides are asking for more specifics regarding tax revenue, the president and the white house wants more specifics from boehner. boehner wants more specifics on spending cuts. they have to come to a point of agreement. it would seem, chris. i want to play just a collective i guess ensemble of conservative voices who have all pretty much said throw in the towel on this tax rates issue. let me play it. >> my view is get the tax issue off the table. it's the weakest one for republicans. >